The incoming government of Portugal will most probably prove to be
the briefest in modern Portuguese history.

It is headed by conservative Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader
Pedro Passos Coelho, whom Portuguese president Cavaco Silva appointed on
October 22 to repeat as prime minister. Passos Coelho has already overseen the
application of the 2011 “bail-out” memorandum applied to Portugal by the Troika
(European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund).
The PSD will again be joined by the neoliberal Democratic and Social
Centre-People's Party (CDS-PP), with whom it ran in the October 4legislative election as the Portugal Ahead coalition.

Will Portugal finally see the end of austerity as administered for four years by the right-wing coalition of the Social-Democratic Party (PSD) and Democratic and Social Centre—People's Party (CDS-PP)?

In the country's October 4 elections this governing alliance, running for the first time as a single ticket called Portugal Ahead (except on the Azores), won the elections, but with only 38.4 % of the vote (down from 50.4% at the 2011 national election). Of the 5.4 million Portuguese who voted, 739,000 turned their back on the outgoing government, leaving it with only 107 seats in the 230-seat parliament (down 25).

As a result, the PSD-CSD alliance, which boasted during the election campaign of being the most reliable tool of the Troika (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund), could even lose government.

The following talk -- “The Greek elections -- what next?
SYRIZA and the fight against austerity” – was presented to the Department of
Political Economy and the Australia-Greece Solidarity Campaign, March 10, 2015,
at the University of Sydney’s New Law
School. Dick Nichols is Green Left
Weekly’s and Links International
Journal of Socialist Renewal’s European correspondent, based in Barcelona, and a member of the Australian Socialist Alliance. Nichols is currently touring Australia presenting an eyewitness account of the SYRIZA election victory.

* * *

March 12, 2015 – Links
International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- What does SYRIZA’s victory
means for politics in Europe, at both all-European and national levels? Both are
closely intertwined, and since SYRIZA’s January 25, 2015, electoral victory there
have been having increasingly rapid feedback effects.

September 25, 2014 -- International Viewpoint, submitted toLinks International Journal of Socialist Renewal by the author -- Sweden went to elections on September 14 to elect a new government for
the next four years. As expected, an informal red-green
coalition gained outpolled (43.7% votes) its rival "bourgeois alliance" (39.3%). The red-green alliance includes the Social Democratic Party, the Left Party (the reformed Communist Party) and Greens. It has represented the
ideological polarisation in Swedish electoral politics since the 1990s.
It represents the mainstream Swedish left.

In contrast, the right-wing alliance, consisting of the Moderate Party (conservatives), Liberals, the Centre
Party and Christian Democrats, was a formal block. It won the last two
elections and during eight years of misrule, it managed to aggressively
dismantle the famous Swedish welfare state. It will be news
only for casual observers of Swedish developments that the country is now
top among OECD lands where the class gulf has widened.

[See a table containing all the results for the European left, Green and left nationalist parties at the end of the article.]

By Dick Nichols

May 30, 2014 – Links
International Journal of Socialist Renewal/Green Left Weekly, an earlier version of
this article appeared at Green Left
Weekly -- The result of the May 25
European parliamentary poll was dominated by the victories of the xenophobic
and racist National Front (FN) in France (26%, 24 MEPs, Members of the European
Parliament) and the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in Britain (26.8%,
24 MEPs). It has set off a wave of mainstream media angst across the old
continent.

[See a table containing the results for the European left, Green and left nationalist parties HERE.]

By Dave Kellaway

May 26, 2014 -- Socialist Resistance -- Despite a strong support for the far
right, the radical anti-austerity left maintained and increased its
votes in some countries such as Greece, but also Spain and Portugal.

April 26, 2014 -- EsquerdaNet -- Alexis Tsipras, leader of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) in Greece and of the Party of the European Left's campaign in the May 25 European Parliament elections, spoke in Portugal with the Left Bloc.

April 24, 2014 -- International Viewpoint -- On the eve of April 25, 1974, Portuguese society was
smouldering from contradictions accumulated in half a century of
dictatorship. At the heart of these contradictions was a war that lasted
thirteen years, to hold on to the African colonies of Angola,
Mozambique, Guinea, Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe. This conflict
conditioned the whole of national life, because of the social suffering
caused by the mobilisation of two hundred thousand men, a tenth of the
working population (a human cost equivalent to twice that of Vietnam),
because of the wave of migration driven by hunger and the war, and
because of the impossibility of a military solution, the only one
contemplated by the regime.

Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings. -- Nelson Mandela

December 29, 2013 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- The outpouring of emotion and dignified appreciation that met the passing of Nelson Mandela on December 5, 2013, flowed like a raging river from every nation and people on the planet. It was a grief tempered by a jubilation and wonderment at the life of this great and humble human being.

While it is certainly true that Mandela's death resonated most powerfully with the South African people and particularly with oppressed and exploited working people worldwide, it is also the case that Mandela was admired and loved by countless millions from all social classes and walks of life with any democratic and anti-racist principles, who were sincerely touched and inspired by his amazing life, his example and his deeds.

I had the unforgettable experience -- and the thrill of a lifetime -- to meet, shake hands and exchange a few words with Nelson Mandela.

May 20, 2013 -- International Viewpoint -- The situation of the "lefts" in Europe cannot be understood
without starting from the crisis, its multiple dimensions and its
effects on the social and political field. Hitting head-on all the
organisations and parties linked to the history of the workers’
movement, precipitating ruptures, it obliges political forces to
recompose around new axes.

Mark Bergfeld: Across Europe we have witnessed
three strands of resistance to the Troika (the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank) : mass strikes by workers,
youth revolts like the indignad@s, and electoral revolts such as SYRIZA in Greece, Front de Gauche in France, and the CUP in Catalonia. In Portugal we have witnessed the former two but haven't seen an upsurge in support for the Left Bloc or the Communist Party for that matter. Why hasn't the Portuguese left been able to take advantage of a favourable situation?

According to rally coordinators, some 500,000 protesters filled
the Lisbon boulevard leading to the Finance Ministry on March 2. Many chanting "It's time for the government
to go!" and "Screw the Troika, we want our lives back", referring
to the lenders from the European Commission, European Central Bank
and International Monetary Fund.

Introduction by Dick
Nichols, European correspondent,Green Left Weekly, based in Barcelona